git visual diff between branches

Question

Use git diff with a range.

git diff branch1..branch2

This will compare the tips of each branch.

If you really want some GUI software, you can try something like SourceTree which supports Mac OS X and Windows.

To see a visual diff of all differences between two branches I like to merge the two branches - WITHOUT committing the merge - and then use git gui or git Extensions to get an overview of the differences.

Git command line for merging without commiting:

git checkout branchA
git merge --no-commit --no-ff branchB

---

Then when done, you can undo the merge with

git merge --abort

(h/t to @jcugat's for the comment)

In case you are using Intellij Idea IDE, you could just use the compare option in the branch.

You can also do this easily with gitk.

> gitk branch1 branch2

First click on the tip of branch1. Now right-click on the tip of branch2 and select Diff this->selected.

For those of you on Windows using TortoiseGit, you can get a somewhat visual comparison through this rather obscure feature:

1. Navigate to the folder you want to compare
2. Hold down shift and right-click it
3. Go to TortoiseGit -> Browse Reference
4. Use ctrl to select two branches to compare
5. Right-click your selection and click "Compare selected refs"

Source: http://wikgren.fi/compare-diff-branches-in-tortoise-git-or-how-to-preview-changes-before-doing-a-merge/

If you are using OSX or Windows 7+, Atlassian SourceTree works very well for this. It is free.

You can see staged changes in a side-by-side diff setup, and you easily compare local with remote and any other two branches. When multiple files are selected, the diff shows up as below:

Assuming you have checked out a feature branch and you want to see the diff against 'master', right-click on the 'master' branch and select "Diff against current"

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if it will be available on *nix distributions anytime soon.

Try "difftool" (assuming you have diff tools setup) - see https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-difftool.html

I find name status good for the summary but difftool will iterate the changes (and the -d option gives you the directory view), e.g.

$ git difftool their-branch my-branch

Viewing: 'file1.txt'
Launch 'bc3' [Y/n]:
...

Or as @rsilva4 mentioned with -d and default to your current branch it is just - e.g. compare to master:

$  git difftool -d master..

...and yes - there are many variations - https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-reset.html